


Shuffled

by reminiscence



Category: No Game No Life - Kamiya Yuu
Genre: Freeverse poetry, Gen, ffn challenge: 100 prompts, ffn challenge: all these different colours, ffn challenge: another mega prompts, poetry collection, word count: 501-999 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-08-17 10:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8141026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: Boredom doesn't write tales, or grant opportunities.





	1. Connected

They blamed their boredom.  
but like everything else, that was just a lie  
they told. They were always bored,  
whether it was with an unchanging  
and ugly world  
or their ugly forms…

They weren't really normal people  
with normal desires – they just pretended to be

But still, there was a love between them,  
where love was just a connection  
only they shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 Prompts Challenge, #090 – vice


	2. Away Players

They play games with the game masters  
and they still win.  
They play the birds in the sky  
and they still win.  
They play the sharks in the sea  
and they still win.

They don't need the home-ground  
advantage to win.


	3. God-Slayers

He was arrogant  
and naïve  
and impatient.

He wanted the world to change  
right now, and so he  
changed it.

He introduced this new species  
and they could grow like rabbits  
and plague the world, or wilt  
and die like a desert’s rose.

They could be a horde of ants  
under their feet  
or the giants that shake the earth.

They could also be the swords  
that slayed the Gods.


	4. Stagnation

They were bored.  
They stagnated.  
They needed a new game  
board to play

And then came Discord:  
their new board and game  
and they were the players  
and the game-masters  
who wondered blind

But blind was fun  
in this world that would test them  
anew, when they’d grown bored  
of theirs, that no longer tested  
them at all.

They didn’t need to stagnate  
any more.


	5. Risks

No-one wins a game  
without taking some risks.

Some risk are just  
too big to take.

He tosses a coin  
and calls it heads  
when he knows well  
nine times out of ten  
it’s a tails.

And it’s tails again.  
It’s Occam’s razor,  
after all.  
The common things  
happen  
again.


	6. Trust

Not everyone can be a pair  
like them.

Too many backstabbers.  
Too many greedy people

But all they know is each other  
in this cage they've fashioned  
for themselves.

Blood isn't going to get them out.  
They already know it.  
They've already fought  
that match to the death  
and lost, and stayed  
for it.

They know they can't escape  
and so they do this: they sing  
as loudly as they dare

But there's a wider world  
out there.


	7. Alone

They pretend they’re four people  
but in truth, two seats  
are empty, and they’ll always be.

Their shadows claim those seats.  
Cold and stiff.

No-one will sit there  
and warm  
and destroy the balance they share

Because this balance they’ve built together  
is impossible to share.


	8. Sampling

This is a new spread for them  
but it only takes a bit of tasting  
all those different dishes  
to have a sense.

Then they can pick the useful  
tasteful ones, and eat  
the entire thing.


	9. Main Players

He thought he could be god  
of this world.

Maybe he wasn’t wrong.  
Maybe he was god.

But in no place on earth  
was god a synonym  
for invincible.

After all, they were the main players,  
slayers of god.


	10. Pair

They were pair  
not clones.

They had different strengths.  
Different weaknesses

And clicked together  
like two halves of a whole.


	11. Party

They couldn’t save an entire world  
by themselves.

It was a shame.  
It was a lesson  
they both knew they had to learn.

They could beat every game  
they could find  
in their world

But they had their limits, their places  
they couldn’t go.

The limiter was released.  
They could go there now  
but their party was too low.

They’d have to learn now  
and build a party  
from below.


	12. Words

Their game of words is a   
surprisingly wonderful thing.

They hardly ever needed to throw  
so many words.

Now they do and they dance  
amongst the words.

They’re beautiful on paper  
but even more so out loud.


	13. Independent

There are the players  
and then there are the pawns  
but the main players  
can never be the pawns.

It’s the fallacy of god,  
his arrogance,  
that makes him think he can  
control the players  
as a god.

He can’t. They’re players.  
They’re here to take down god.


	14. Together

It hadn’t always been love.

Hate, once.  
Forced together.  
Stuck together.

But now they couldn’t  
imagine it differently  
at all.


	15. Capacity

They were clever,  
undefeated,  
but still children  
beneath it all.

They could still lose out  
on not knowing enough,  
not seeing enough,  
not having done enough

But their brains aren’t   
also full.


	16. Filling

It never would have worked  
if there weren’t two  
of them.

He’d have slipped in haste  
and fallen. She would have tripped  
in caution, and fallen.

They’d have danced around,  
floundered around,  
spun in the spot instead  
of walking straight  
and hand in hand

But that was why  
they were together.


	17. Opportunity

He wants to rule the world.

He wants to rule it now  
when it’s broken, and fragile.

He can build it the way he wants  
without the trouble  
of ripping it apart  
first of all.

But he’s a little too hasty  
because instead he hands over the tools  
to rebuild it  
on its own  
with their help  
and remove him.


	18. Teamwork

They have a world  
they want to protect.

They still can’t win.

.

They have talent  
but nothing they want to save.

They can’t win either

Because they don’t care enough  
and just wanting to win  
isn’t always enough.

.

They join forces.  
The ones who care.  
The ones who can.

Together, they can beat  
anything.

.

Isn’t that how it’s  
supposed to go?


	19. Opponents

Their old opponents were dull  
and boring; it didn’t take long  
to have far surpassed them  
and it was only time to kill  
for them to play some more

But this new world was different.  
They struggled for their victories.  
They grew stronger. They had fun.

These were real battles  
in more ways than one.


	20. Sides

They didn’t care one way or another  
at the start. Strangers  
dumped in a world,  
held down by nothing –

But things changed.  
They fought battles.  
Met allies.  
Met enemies  
as well  
and learned some things

And now they’d picked their sides  
in this war.

**Author's Note:**

> Another Mega Prompts Challenge, writing prompts #019 - roll five or six (your choice) six-sided die. The sum is how many entries your poetry collection should have. I rolled a 20!


End file.
